EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 171 



" At this eventful period of my life I had 

 succeeded in restoring order and tranquillity to 

 a kingdom torn asunder by faction and deluged 

 in blood. The nation had placed me at their 

 head. I came not as your Cromwell did, or 

 your third Richard. No such thing. I found 

 a crown in the kennel ; I cleansed it from its 

 filth, and placed it on my head." 



He referred to a plot against him, the object 

 of which, he said, was to destroy him. " It 

 emanated from the capital of your country, 

 with the Count d'Artois at the head of it. 

 To the west he sent the Duke de Berri, and 

 to the east the Duke d'Enghien. . . . The 

 moment was big with evil, and I felt myself on 

 a tottering eminence, and I resolved to hurl the 

 thunder back on the Bourbons, even in the 

 metropolis of the British Empire." He went 

 on to say that the Duke d'Enghien was acces- 

 sory to the confederacy, and although the 

 resident of a neutral territory, the urgency of 

 the case, his own safety, and the public tran- 

 quillity, justified the proceeding. He accordingly 

 ordered the Duke to be seized and tried, found 

 guilty, and sentenced to be shot. The sentence 

 was immediately executed. " And," said he, 



